STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - You bet Erica McCall had it on her mind that Arizona State had won the last two matchups on Stanford’s home floor in Maples Pavilion.
“I thought about it the previous days to this game thinking about how much that one hurt me,” the senior said.
McCall scored 18 points and she and the 10th-ranked Cardinal set the defensive tone from the opening tip, keeping hold of a share of the Pac-12 lead and earning Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer career victory No. 997 in a 66-56 win against the No. 18 Sun Devils on Sunday.
Stanford’s Brittany McPhee went down after rolling her right ankle with about 15 seconds left before halftime and was helped to the locker room but returned for the second half and scored 13 points. Karlie Samuelson added 15 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Cardinal (17-3, 7-1 Pac-12).
Sophie Brunner had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead defending Pac-12 regular-season champion Arizona State (14-5, 5-3), which had won two in a row at Maples Pavilion - the first conference opponent to do so since Arizona in 2000-01. This time, the Sun Devils never found a steady rhythm against Stanford’s stingy defense from the opening tip.
The Cardinal took away what Arizona State does so well: rebounding and pushing the pace in transition. There were some unforced turnovers VanDerveer will discuss with the team during film time.
“That’s our next project if we play them again to really take care of the ball better,” she said.
VanDerveer, Stanford’s Hall of Fame 31st-year coach, is now within three victories of joining the late Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women’s coaches in the 1,000 club. Stanford next heads to the Pacific Northwest and will face first-place Washington next Sunday in Seattle.
McCall shot 6 for 10 and had a powerful block of a shot by Kiara Russell late in the first half, when the Cardinal built a 30-19 at the break they built on in a hurry.
Reili Richardson and Sabrina Haines combined to shoot 0 for 11 while Robbi Ryan went 1 of 10 for the cold-shooting Sun Devils. Coach Charli Turner Thorne is eager for the return of senior guard Kelsey Moos from plantar fascia to give ASU some experience in the backcourt.
“We probably weren’t as prepared as we needed to be offensively. We’re just going to learn from Stanford,” Turner Thorne said. “This is good. I hope it’s a kick in the pants our young guards need: like, come on, you have to watch more film, you have to give more mental energy to getting better in those areas.”
Stanford faced a ranked conference team for the 23rd time over the last five seasons.
The Cardinal swept the season series after winning the first meeting 64-57 in the teams’ Pac-12 opener Dec. 30 in Tempe. That Stanford win snapped Arizona State’s seven-game winning streak and stretch of four straight victories in conference play against the Cardinal.
Stanford came out with an aggressive defense and Arizona State struggled to make shots. The Sun Devils began 1 for 7 and missed its initial four shots before Quinn Dornstauder’s layup at the 6:34 mark of the first. The Cardinal led 10-2.
Arizona State got a 3 from Brunner with 33 seconds remaining in the opening quarter to end a 1-for-9 slump.
Dornstauder was the lone other Sun Devils player in double figures with 14 points as ASU shot 29.6 percent.
BIG PICTURE
Arizona State: Brunner’s rebounds moved her past Monique Ambers for second place on the school’s career list. She fouled out with 48.3 seconds left. Arizona State, picked to finish fourth in the conference and currently in the midst of a tough stretch with six of eight games on the road, ultimately could not overcome a seven-point first quarter.
Stanford: The Cardinal are 32-3 at home against Arizona State since Jan. 5, 1979, and improved to 80-5 in conference play at Maples dating to 2007-08. … Stanford is 17-0 this season with a 24-game winning streak overall when shooting at least 40 percent.
UP NEXT
Arizona State: The Sun Devils wrapped up the first of consecutive California road trips, with a game at UCLA next Friday.
Stanford: At Washington State next Friday in the lone regular-season meeting between the schools.
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